A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I ordered the DVD because of Julia Ormond's role. She only appeared in about 5 minutes of the film. I was disappointed her appearance was so brief. She seems to become more lovely, the older she gets.I must say that Hillary Swank delivered a very strong performance. She was well cast for this role. You could tell that women predominated in writing the film and a woman directed it as well.I did not feel that the unsuccessful romance depicted here was a distraction. The Ben Weissman character was really getting to the lead character, Alice Paul. You could see her political will was starting to buckle under the force of her attraction to Ben and his motherless son. It was perhaps a little too graphic how Alice relieved her sexual tension in the bathtub. At any rate, Alice subdued her softer side under her iron will. Her own needs would always take second place to her political cause.The scene where the psychiatrist was interviewing Alice in prison was perhaps the most powerful scene in the film. Here was a woman greatly weakened by starvation forced to contend with a powerful mind sent to undermine her efforts by declaring her insane. Every word was taken down to find a pretext to belittle her moral claim to suffrage. She was able to summon the words that compelled this man to reject the powerful inducements to destroy her. Hillary Swank delivered an enormously powerful performance here. She actually appeared near death in these scenes.Reading some of the other comments here made me realize how distorted feminist doctrine has made history. Of course women are entitled to vote. What has been lost is the understanding of the progression of understanding in Western Civilization that has brought us to our present position.In the beginning, might ruled everything. All privilege was obtained by being the most powerful man or being useful enough to him to be accorded certain limited considerations. Judaism and even more emphatically Christianity changed all that. The Golden Rule proclaimed that our neighbor was deserving of our regard. Women were accorded a place of respect and honor in Christian doctrine. This was truly revolutionary in historical terms.The history of Western Civilization is the account of the continued expansion of the rights of man, or to be P.C., humanity. First the nobles in England forced the king to acknowledge their rights by signing the Magna Carta. Then the cities forced the king to recognize their rights under law. Then the merchant class gradually gained rights because they were needed to finance the king's armies and lifestyle. Then rights gradually extended to property owners, especially in the U.S. Blacks in the U.S. gained rights gradually as slavery was abolished first in the North and, after the Civil War, in the South. Women were not excluded from this process. The rights of women continually expanded over these centuries.The basic point here is that, for the most point, rights were not gained by force. Moral arguments and peaceful protest that appealed to the Christian Conscience gained the day. Many of the women in this film were college graduates. This education gave them the understanding of the possibilities and potentials that their advancement could offer. These women were enormously privileged by the standards of the day.The tide turned when details of the horrible injustices inflicted on these women inflamed the public opinion to the point where Sufferage became politically necessary. The same process was at work 60 years later when the same means gained Blacks better access to civil rights.Time constraints greatly compressed this important work. It would have been better served by a mini-series that could have explored the topic in greater depth. Still, kudos to HBO for being willing to tackle this difficult subject. Perhaps a more appealing title could have enhanced the success of this film.

"Iron Jawed Angels" only has a couple positives going for it. The story seems pretty true to what actually happened, and the actors were fairly competent. Other than that, this is an unnecessarily "hipper" version of women fighting for their rights to vote.Several women begin fighting against President Woodrow Wilson to earn the right to vote. They fight tooth and nail, and they suffer (hence women suffrage), and they go through much pain, similar to what happens to the audience as they watch this. Of course, we all know how it ends. This could have been a powerful film, but it was too hip. Many techniques used constantly were time lapse photography, slow motion, switch to black and white, contemporary music and bad synthesizer music. The newer music does not fit with the time period, and the synthesizer music is horrible sounding and nonstop, even in scenes that need no music. The actors do what they can with an okay script, but awful director. It could've been good, but ended up quite a mess.My rating: * 1/2 out of ****. 120 mins. Contains nudity and violence.

We watched this movie in a high school history class. I watched it again last night after being in several college history classes and I changed my opinion of the movie. Don't get me wrong, the movie makes you really respect women that were willing for a right that they deserved in the first place. The thing I have a problem with is that the movie makes it seem that Alice Paul had a hell of a lot to do with the 19th amendment. No doubt she was one of the main suffragist leaders, but America hated her because she picketed a war-time president. If anything, Alice Paul made Carrie Chapman Catt and the National American Women's Suffrage Association look less radical and gave them more credibility. I don't believe that Alice Paul was the real hero and the movie downplays Carrie Chapman Catt's role in the women's suffrage movement.

I viewed this film at the Sundance Film Festival and was quite impressed, especially after listening to Katja von Garnier, the director. HBO Films purchased the film just before it debuted at Sundance. The film was released to the public in 2004 on HBO. Only those who went to Sundance or subscribe to HBO actually had a chance to see this incredible and historically-based work of art. Hilary Swank was great as usual, with Francis O'Connor and Agelica Houston rounding out a very talented and well-selected cast. And you could not help but dislike the political environment lead by Bob Gunton as President Woodrow Wilson - not one of America's greatest moments.From a man's perspective, every woman and man who thinks voting is not an obligation to our democratic process needs to see this film. HBO Films has done a disservice to the American public by pigeon-holing this work on only HBO networks. Every red-blooded U.S. citizen should see this film. In fact, it should be required viewing in every U.S. high-school. If you can get your hands on this film or know when it is playing, I challenge you to see how many Americans you can share it with. As seen in this film, many suffered in many ways, so all Americans would have the right to vote.